Sydney FC have made a superb start to their Hyundai A-League title defence, currently five points clear at the top of the ladder after 10 matches.
If there was any fear of a title hangover for Graham Arnold’s side, they have so far blown that right out the window.
But how does this season’s team compare to the all-conquering squad of 2016/17 after 10 rounds?
We’ve crunched the Opta Stats to find out.
GOALS AND SHOOTING
Saturday night’s 5-0 drubbing of Western Sydney Wanderers took the Sky Blues’ tally to 20 for the campaign, the second most in the Hyundai A-League.
At the same point last season Sydney were slightly advanced, scoring a league-high 21 goals.
Those goals this season have come from 97 shots at goal, which is currently the third-most in the competition.
That’s well down on last campaign when the Sky Blues had fired off an impressive 128 shots, the most in the Hyundai A-League.
PASSING
This is one area this season’s Sky Blues have taken to a new level.
In 2016/17 after 10 games, Sydney FC had made 3763 passes (ranked 8th in the league), whereas this season they’ve made 4606 passes to sit second in the league.
Their passing accuracy has also improved this season (76% to 73%), while passing in the opposition’s half (2731 to 2385) and passing accuracy in opposition’s half (69% to 67%) is also an improvement.
DEFENSIVE QUALITIES
Sydney FC built their Premiership-Championship double on the back of their resolute defence.
And – for the most part – not much has changed in 2017/18.
At this stage of last season they were ranked no.1 for clean sheets with six. While they have one fewer this campaign, their five shutouts is still a league high.
Their tackling stats are slightly down this season though. Not only have they made three fewer tackles this campaign (199 to 196), they have also won far fewer tackles (148 to 123).
Sydney FC’s defence has made 222 clearances this season compared to 206 in 2016/17.
